More on the 9 Patch

A couple of weeks ago I wrote this post about the 9 patch quilt I'm slowly working on. Well, on Monday of this week AmandaJean of Crazy Mom Quilts announced that she is doing a quilt-along based on the same quilt! I actually first found out about that quilt through AmandaJean's blog. So I've joined in the quilt-along! AmandaJean has a list of all the participants on her sidebar and if you check it out you'll see another Aimee. Cool, huh? The goal is to make one square a day. I've already got about half of my squares done and my squares are bigger so I don't need quite so many, so my goal is to make 2-3 a week. I'm so excited! Here are some of the squares I've finished in the last two weeks.

Ode to Wordfull Wednesday

Today is Wordfull Wednesday, Hooray!

I'm so excited, but now what do I say?

Cocoa has chosen the topic so well,

To write our own poem, oh this could be swell.

I love to read poems by Frost and Blake,

But to write my own could be a mistake.

I joined in this group to stretch and to grow

But writing a poem...I just don't know.

Well look at that, as I've typed and I've sighed

A poem emerged, but not till I tried.

And so I say "Thanks" to Cocoa, my friend.

And now that I'm done I will call this, THE END

Classic Kids Records

I just wanted to quickly post about a new website I found through Chocolate On My Cranium. I think it will be my new favorite for a while! Check out Kiddie Records Weekly. I am so excited about this!

Friday's Fix-up: the kitchen counter....or part of it anyway

For today's fix-up I cleaned up a part of my kitchen counter that has been cluttered pretty much since the day we moved in.

There used to be a phone on the wall right above the counter here, and so we kept a phone book, and notepad there. Pretty soon all kinds of papers and other stuff were getting piled there too. The sad thing is that we haven't had a phone on that wall for almost two years now! And there were still two phone books sitting there! New phone books, I might add. I got rid of the old ones when the new ones came. How ridiculous is that? I guess old habits really do die hard. Well here is that space now.

I left the fruit basket because we go through fruit like crazy around here and I like to have it accessible to the kids. I also left the mug full of pens, pencils, etc., because the kids use them for homework and other things and I just haven't come up with any better place that would be just as handy. Sometimes getting them to do their homework is like pulling teeth (I was the same way, so I can't complain too much), and if I have to send them searching for a pencil it just makes it that much harder. So, the mug stays. But still, it is soooooo much nicer! Hooray!

My Pursuit of Order

I didn't post a Monday's Mess yesterday. Not because I'm quitting. I'm just going to combine the Monday and Friday posts into one post on Friday so I'll have a before and after in one post. I am really enjoying the small spaces of order I have created so far. I really don't want to quit!

Over the weekend I had some insane thoughts about completely and deeply cleaning my whole house this week. While the results would be very nice, it just isn't a practical or even possible plan of action. Bringing order to my home is going to take a lot of organizing, de-cluttering, and changing of habits and that is NOT going to happen all in one week. So, I will keep going with my weekly projects and try to keep my past projects from becoming messes again. It feels like a long drawn out process at times, but I think it is the best process for me right now.

In my quest to establish a home of order I'm also trying out a little schedule. It sounds like such a big deal when I use the word schedule, but really it's not. I'm just trying to eliminate some of the chaos that gives me so much trouble and is so very overwhelming. Here's my weekday schedule (no schedule for weekends):

Wake up somewhere between 5 and 6 am. (pretty vague, but I'm always up before the kids.)
Kids up at 6:30
Leave for school 7:45
Get home and start clean up time 8:30
Pre-school/play time/whatever time starting sometime after 10:45 or so
Lunch sometime around 11:30 or 12
story time
quiet (nap) time, I get computer/sewing/reading time here
quick clean-up 3:00
kids home from school/snacks/homework 3:45
start supper 4:30
eat supper whenever it's ready
quick clean-up and baths
bedtime routine 7:30(our well established habit of jammies, sing some songs, family scripture reading, family prayer, brush teeth, then personal prayers)
kids into bed 8:00
free time for James and I (sewing for me/electronics for him, read together, watch a movie together, make cookies together, whatever!)
go to bed usually about 10 but this varies greatly.

I've only actually "followed" this schedule about three times now, but I do notice a difference when I do. Things just seem to go a little smoother.

Friday's Fix-up: now I can see the piano

The piano is much improved.

Ahhhh. If only the rest of my house could look so good. I think it will someday.

Inspiring

What person or scene inspires me? That is the topic from Chocolate on my Cranium for Wordfull Wednesday today. Hmmmm.... I've had so many thoughts on this the last few days. Abigail Adams came to mind, and so did Benjamin Franklin. But I settled on a scene: the west side of the Teton Mountains. I grew up seeing that scene every day. Well, every clear day. It always brought me a feeling of joy and home and excitement. It still does whenever I get the chance to see it. I don't have a picture, but did find a webcam of the west side. So beautiful!

My 9 Patch

I haven't done much on my nine patch quilt lately. I would really like to start making more progress on it. I'm following a picture rather than a pattern, but a nine patch quilt is pretty simple. Click HERE to see the picture. Mine won't look exactly like the one in the picture. But that's the basic idea I'm going for. I really like the white in that quilt, but I'm thinking about going with a more creamy color. Here is my latest block. I think it might be my favorite so far.

Monday's Mess: the piano

Ok, here we go again. My piano is quite cluttered. Too much music, and stuff just keeps getting piled on top. It will be very nice to get it cleaned up, plus it will help the whole living room look better.

Friday's Fix-up: or not

I did not get my mess fixed up this week. Oh well, Heidi and I had a wonderful time together anyway and she still loves me! What would I do without my sisters? I'm sad she had to go today, but I'm so EXCITED that she only lives six hours away now! Hooray!

The Sky

Spring is here (hooray) and everyone is very happy about it. We are back to walking to school. It is so nice to spend some time outside and get some exercise. As I was walking home today I was thinking about spring and how much joy it brings to everyone. I realized that the differences between winter and spring are a great example of "opposition in all things." After living through winter, even though I like winter, it is so wonderful to see the sunshine again and feel warmth outside and not have to worry about ice or snow. But I don't think I would really appreciate spring and it's warmth if it never changed or went away. I'm so glad I live in a place with four separate and very different seasons.



I was also looking at the sky today and enjoying the blueness of it. I thought, "I'm so glad Heavenly Father made the sky blue and not just plain white." As soon as I thought white, I then thought, "But isn't heaven all white?" I think that is how I've always thought of heaven; a very beautiful, very light, and very white place. But as I was looking at the sky and the green grass and the purple and yellow crocuses popping up here and there, I thought that heaven must have some color in it. Color brings us such happiness and variety here on earth and I just can't imagine that a place more glorious than earth would have less color. Maybe it has colors that we can't even comprehend in our mortal state. Heavenly Father must love us. I'm so glad he gave us colors!

Monday's Mess: yikes!

This is my sewing table.

I hesitated before choosing this spot, because it is sooo bad. The laundry room is the most embarrassing place in my house. But I have some good motivation to work on this table this week. My sister, Heidi, is coming to visit tomorrow and even if we don't sew anything, we are going to talk about sewing, and so that table has to be better. I'm not promising to get it completely cleaned and organized. But it will be better. Heidi will be here tomorrow afternoon or evening, so I've got tonight and tomorrow morning to make some progress. I think I can do it.

Singing Time

My calling (assignment) at church right now is to lead the singing for the Primary, all the kids between the ages of 3 and 12. I really enjoy Singing Time. I love working in the Primary and have been for 6 of the last 10 years. I've only been the chorister for the last year, though. Primary is such a wonderful place to be on Sundays.

Last week I was able to go to a class for Primary choristers that was taught by a neat sister here in my stake, Melanie Ketchison (I'm not sure if I spelled that right.). I got some great ideas from her and I'm really looking forward to using them. She also encouraged us to record our ideas and things we do for singing time so that we can keep track of what we have done and when we did it. She mentioned blogging as one way to do that. Melanie has a great blog herself that I am so excited to know about and I will definitely be checking for ideas. It is The Crazy Chorister. Plus she has lots of links to other helpful sites.

However, the most important thing I got out of that class was the reminder to pray and pray and pray about it and then prepare well. And if I do those two things, Heavenly Father will help me and the kids will learn, and will remember these songs and the lessons they teach for the rest of their lives.

Friday's Fix-up: They're outta here!

All of my small plastic containers are out of the lazy susan! Hooray!

I cleaned out another cupboard that had a bunch of baby bottles and other things I don't use anymore, and put them up there.

I'm thinking they will stay neater just because they are out of reach of all the kids, especially the littlest one. Plus I threw away about half of them. I might even get rid of more now that I can really see what I have and will be better able to tell how much of it I really use.

Funny Stuff

It's been hard for me to decide what funny or humorous things I should write about today for Wordfull Wednesday from Chocolate on my Cranium. My kids make me laugh all the time. Like the time my oldest child, Stephen, was 2 and he found some markers, took off all of his clothes, and drew very colorful stripes all over his body. His feet, legs, tummy and arms were covered in scribbly rainbow stripes. When he saw me he just smiled and said, "Hi Mama. I a tiger! Rooaaaaahhhhhr!" What could I do but laugh?

I have to share one other thing that makes me laugh. One of my very favorite movies is Roman Holiday, starring Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck. It's the story of Princess Ann who runs away in Rome and meets an American journalist named Joe Bradley. It is a funny movie, but there is one scene in particular that cracks me up every time! It is the scene where Joe and the princess visit the Mouth of Truth. If you have never seen this movie, or if you just want to refresh your memory, watch the clip (it takes about 90 seconds) and then keep reading so I can tell you why it so funny to me.


What makes this clip so funny is that Audrey Hepburn really had no idea that Gregory Peck was going to pretend his hand was being bitten off. He had privately talked to the directory before they filmed the scene and said that he wanted to try it that way and see how Audrey reacted. It went so well they used the scene in the movie. It is so much funnier to me, knowing that we get to see her real reaction. And if you really have never seen the whole movie, I would highly recommend it.